TAKEAWAY: Mexico has a new photo app of consequence, and it is worth taking a look. Called MondaPhotoMag it is the first photo magazine totally created for the iPad in Mexico.
(This blog post will be updated with more information/images during the day today Thursday. Be on the lookout for these updates)
Take a tour of the app through this video, courtesy of Daniel Esqueda
The iPad is an ideal animated photo album, with perfect photo reproduction, and all of us users like very much to look at photos on the screen. Now the first photo magazine app created in Mexico exclusively for the iPad is available and it is noteworthy.
Designed by Daniel Esqueda, the app is attractive, full of visual surprises, and with a vibrant color palette that says Mexico at a glance. Daniel and his editors have also selected some exciting photography to carry us in this visual journey via our iPads.
“MondaPhoto is a photo studio in Mexico City that has worked closely with our studio for the last years. After doing their app we were talking about the idea of a magazine but made entirely for the iPad. They had done some digital ideas for their website before but didn’t had nor the interactivity nor the content we thought it should have,” Daniel said.
MondaPhoto Studio pitched the initial idea to Conaculta (Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes) which sponsored the first issues. That sponsorship is only for some issues while it takes off , says Daniel.
In Daniel’s own words:
MondaPhoto Magazine is a very collaborative project. The creative process was clear from the start. We decided that the concept was an open photo magazine with a lot of latinamerican content but that also talked to all the readers interested in photo. We have a meeting where we pitch content ideas and every piece of information that each content should have, and that includes if its text, charts, data boxes, photos, video, audio, 360 degrees photos, etc…..we try to think of interactive content in each piece of information.
The important thing in the process of doing the issues is that even though you have a lot of things you can give to the reader you also have to think not to overwhelm the reader with a lot of pop ups or audio or video content that will make the reader go crazy.
“We used videos and audios in certain sections and we make them part of the app so that the reader doesn’t need necessarily to have an internet connection and still read it, see the videos and audios,” Daniel says.
“This is the premier issue and we are working on what will be the first edition that has more interactivity. The reader will be able connect with the photographers and editors of the magazine so that can be an even more collaborative project.”
Reactions to the app:
“The reactions on the app are great so far. We were invited to show in on a morning news TV show and only that day we had 2,800 downloads. The app has been downloaded from Mexico (biggest percentage), Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, United States, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Spain. The app has been on iTunes for only two weeks and we have received great comments about it,” Daniel says.
Of special interest today
Lean Back 2.0: Taking Stock and Moving Forward
http://www.economistgroup.com/leanback/lean-back-reading/taking-stock-and-moving-forward/
– USA: Publisher hopes to restart shuttered newspapers
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2012/09/01/publisher-hopes-to-restart-shuttered-newspapers
– USA: Perks, not paywalls – The Voice of San Diego’s new membership strategy ties funding to “family”
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/perks_not_paywalls.php
– USA: Ebook Bestsellers: A newspaper’s longform experiment pays off
http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/24/ebook-bestsellers-a-newspapers-longform-experiment-pays-off/
– USA: Ark. Dem-Gazette merging design desks
http://www.newsandtech.com/whats_new/article_4c071be8-f6ba-11e1-9dc1-0019bb2963f4.html
Sign up to get information on my new digital book
Assorted screens from the book: top, chapter openers all of which are color coded and carry illustrations by Luis Vazquez, of the Gulf News of Dubai; second image, opener of Storytelling chapter, and two inside screens.
As we get closer to publication date for The iPad Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet, we are now set up so that you can give us your email address and you will automatically be informed when the book is ready for download.
Now you can leave your email address so that you will be updated and informed the moment the book is read for download.
Simply go here:
http://ipaddesignlab.com
Video walkthrough of the iPad prototype of iPad Design Lab
SPD: Speaker Series Begins with “News You Can Use”
(Joe Zeff Design Illustration, courtesy of SPD)
Tickets are now available for the Society of Publication Designers’ first Speaker Series event of the fall, “News You Can Use,” scheduled Sept. 10.
For more information:
http://www.spd.org/2012/08/speaker-series-begins-with-new.php
SND Scandinavia Space 2012 conference
Still time to get a spot to attend the SNDS conference in Copenhagen, Sept. 27-29;
For more information:
SNDS workshop ever. Read all about SPACE 2012 here:
Mario Garcia’s upcoming speaking engagements:
Cumbre Mundial de Diseño en Prensa 2012: Mexico City; September 24-26
http://www.cmdprensa.com/mx2012/
SND (Society of News Design) Cleveland; Oct. 11-13
http://cle.snd.org/
1st Middle East News Design Conference
It promises to be a great program, and a historic one, too: the first SND Middle East gathering. Put it on your calendars: November 8 & 9, in Beirut, Lebanon. Sponsored by An-Nahar and SND.
For more information:
http://www.snd20events.com/conference/